Our goal is to keep it simple. Just do one thing really well.
We've all been there. You’re putting together a piece for a client, writing up content for a new story, or gathering data for a big pitch. You look up to the top of your browser and there are probably thirty tabs open, maybe more, from news articles to photos, stats to studies.
Soon, you’ll be ready to start writing, to organize all the stuff you’ve just gathered. Soon, you’ll be sorting through all those tabs looking for the bits of information that actually pertain to what you’re doing.
Bob Girolamo has a solution for this simple problem that so many content producers, sales people, researchers, and students have—research on the computer often makes organizing your work cumbersome. In January of this year, he and his team launched SORC’D, a cloud based platform that allows users to save and access information—a bread crumb trail of all the stuff you’ve been looking at.
Users can add a browser plugin that allows them to highlight and save items that are relevant to their projects. Each item is saved under a category. So, when you’re ready to get writing you’ve already got all your information organized for you. It also means that others collaborating on a project can share research within the private cloud.
Two years ago, Girolamo and a buddy would regularly get together to brainstorm ideas “to save the world”— the kind of meetings where you "throw away the napkins the next morning." But one such conversation left them thinking about ways to make something most people already have to do—gather and organize information they find on the web easier.
“Our goal was to be a simple solution,” Girolamo said. There are similar products out there, like Evernote and Pocket, but as Girolamo explained, “they have a lot of different tools that can be overwhelming. Our goal is to keep it simple. Just do one thing really well. SORC’D isn’t about trying to change the tools you’re using or shift your entire behavior; just take everything you’re doing and make it a little easier."
SORC’D is currently a member of 1871 where Girolamo and his wife and co-founder, Emily Girolamo, enjoy the shared workspace but find, “the real value is in the workshops and the mentoring that they provide.” With 1871’s help SORC’D is gaining traction. Rise Interactive, one of the winners of the Chicago’s Coolest Companies competition, uses SORC’D as a sales tool to keep up with all the latest trends in order to better prospect to new clients.
And as a "sales guy," this is exactly what Girolamo initially had in mind when creating the product. “I grew up in sales,” he explained, “So my first though was to use this as a sales tool.” But after some research they found that SORC’D is a broader platform than just sales and, in fact, its just the kind of thing content creators are looking for.
SORC’D is planning to launch an updated version of the platform that will feature a friendlier design that will allow users to connect the platform with Microsoft Office as well. “We’re closing the loop for everybody trying to create excellent content for their clients and users. If you’re team can put together their research all in one place, organized by category, they’re going to be that much more effective at producing their high quality work.”
Looks like Girolamo is saving the world after all, one simple solution at a time.
